Happy Halloween!

So I may be a little slow in posting this, I mean it's only January, I'm just barely 9 weeks late, sheesh! :)

DH and I threw a fun little Halloween party this year. A couple of years ago when we were living in Jacksonville we had a Halloween dinner with some friends who had a tradition of having people over and eating dinner on their front porch while watching the trick or treaters. They started the tradition in San Diego, we did it with them in Jacksonville and we carried it to Hawaii. Now, to be fair, the outside dinner concept only works in warm weather places, but I love it. How many times have you been at a Halloween party and never seen a trick or treater?! This way you can see them all, and count how many Elsa and Anna costumes you get (we should have counted!!)

The weather was mostly with us for Halloween, it didn't rain while we had guests over, but a couple of hours before there were torrential downpours. Luckily our carport was undercover and large enough to prevent the table from getting wet. 

So we moved our dining room table out under the carport and also made an impromptu table with 2 sawhorses and some plywood because we had more people than our table will allow. We covered them with orange disposable table cloths, they were $0.97 at Walmart in Hawaii. We also had a black table cloth that we folded in half as a runner of sorts. Since it the table was outside and we had wind to consider (we live on the windward side), we needed to tape the tablecloths in place.

Above the table you can see some floating candles. We made them out of LED tea lights, computer paper and fishing line. You can use a whole sheet of paper to make the candles, but really you can get up to 4 out of a single sheet. Tie the fishing line around the base of the flame, tie the other end in a loop and hang it from a thumb tack. 

On the wall you can see some garbage bag spiderwebs I made using a tutorial I found on Pinterest. 

Finally, since it is Hawaii, we carved pineapple.

This was surprisingly easy to do. We found some pineapples which stood up on their own, cut off the top of the pineapple and cored it as normal. We have this awesome tool that if you think you will be having a lot of pineapple is a must to won. Then we just took a knife and carved it. The shell is a little harder than a pumpkin so you are more limited in the shapes you can get, but a simple face is easy enough to do. 

  

You can see how it looks at dusk with the hanging candles and the pumpkins lit.

 Finally, we served some 'spooky' spaghetti. It is spaghetti cooked in water with black icing color. Again, we found it at Walmart, but most craft stores that have a cake decorating section should have icing color. I think it looks like snakes on the plate. Seeing how easy it was to make I was suddenly struck with inspiration, Green noodles for St. Patrick's day! Red and blue noodles with plain (white) noodles for Independence day! Red and green noodles for Christmas! And then I realized that we just don't need to eat that much pasta. :) But I am going to remember how easy it is if the need arises. 

  

And we dressed up as Harley Quinn and The Joker.

Husband BOUGHT A PURPLE SUIT to be Joker. We have never gone big for Halloween, so buying an entire suit seemed a little overboard to me. So he got the suit and yellow vest/tie online and we bought a neon green shirt from Goodwill. He is required to wear that suit for the next several Halloweens, so he can either be the Joker, or the guy from the Mask, or maybe a Dia de los Muertos guy.

I went as Harley Quinn who apparently is Joker's girlfriend of sorts. I had never heard of her until this Halloween season, but fortunately she was very popular as a Halloween character. Since hubby spent so much on his costume I didn't want to spend a lot on mine. So I didn't really buy and premade costume of hers but looked to them for inspiration. I already had the black petticoat so I bought a black bra, red tank top, Harley Quinn official choker, red/black tights, the gloves and mask. 

Happy New Year

Last night 2 friends and I got all gussied up in 1920s attire with cute dresses, pearls, curly hair, and a smokey eye. And then we decided not to go out. :) Hawaii goes all out with fireworks with many families having professional looking fireworks. However the other girls' dogs were frightened by the fireworks even after drugging them...although they did only give half the dose. My dog, Lexy, is kama'aina, so she handled the booms and cracks like a champ. So we stayed at her home drinking champagne and overlooking the valley and seeing all of the fireworks. It was like our own personal fireworks show. We reflected on 2014, spoke about goals for 2015, watched the fireworks, drank bubbly, watched the Radio City Rockettes Christmas show and went to bed about 3 am.

I realized that 2014 was full of changes. We moved to a new state, (as far as one could go and still be in the US...from Florida to Hawaii). We got Lexy, my first dog (who is amazing!). I quit my dream job and had 10 of unemployment and started another job. I learned that pharmacy is my passion and definately the right career for me. We made lots of new friends through the squadron, from the wine society, and game night. I've really enjoyed the events of 2014, and I'm hoping 2015 brings a little more stability, but I already know some big events and decisions are coming down the pipe.

2014

2014 was a busy year for us. We spent Christmas 2013 in a huge beach house in Pensacola. My parents couldn't come, my mom had just had surgery, but we had DH's parents, sister, aunt and cousins all there. I can't remember what we did for New Years, but I'm thinking we went to a friend's house.
My husband had training in another part of the state for January. Pensacola also got snow!
February brought the end of my job and got an offer on our house.
March was filled with visiting family in Oregon/Washington.
Then we moved to Hawaii! We found and adopted our dog Lexy and bought an island Jeep. We spent lots of time on hikes, drinking wine, soaking up the sun and meeting new friends. Hawaii had it's first hurricane make landfall in about 20 years...there were a total of 3 that threatened the islands this summer, and at one point we even had 2 at once! Fortunately our part of the island did not have anything worse than a heavy rain...not even the heaviest rain we've had here.
June and July hubby was gone and I went to Maui and continued to meet friends.
October we went to the Big Island where we went to Volcanoes National Park and Mauna Kea. We also hosted Halloween Dinner outside under the carport complete with 'spooky' spaghetti and carved pineapple.
November my Sister-in-law came to visit and the In-laws came for Thanksgiving.
December hubby is gone again and my Mom is coming out for Christmas.

I had so many great experiences in 2014 and cannot wait to see what is in store for 2015!

Job hunting

Are you unemployed? Looking for a new job? Just move to a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean only knowing your spouse? Well this post may be fore you.

About 6 months ago my husband and I moved to Hawaii. We both were leaving jobs we loved in Florida, but only he had a job out here. I didn't do any research to prepare for moving out here. I thought I would just practice retirement or be a beach bum. Well reality set in pretty fast that I would probably need to get a job while out here. So I first worked on getting licensed in the state. The process took 4 months. I would recommend starting as soon as you find out you are moving. There were things that would have been easier to get done while in Florida (letters signed, information from job, etc).

Then I took to filling out job applications online while I had met all of the requirements to be licensed, but did not have my actually license number. I don't recommend doing this either. It meant that I technically came across as unqualified for the positions. Just wait a few weeks (or a month...) and fill out whatever jobs are available then. They will come.

Open your mind to other alternatives. I knew about retail and hospital pharmacies, but I applied for jobs in insurance companies and doctor's offices too. I even looked at remote order jobs back in Florida!

See if there are additional things you can do to make you a more competitive applicant. Hawaii has a specific class that is required for some of the outpatient pharmacies. I took the class to be more marketable.

However, I will say that the number one thing that got me furthest in my job hunt was developing and maintaining a relationship with a director of pharmacy. Before we left Florida I made a single phone call to my 'dream hospital' asking if they had any openings for when I'd be arriving. They said no, but agreed to me sending my CV. A couple of months later after arriving to Hawaii I emailed back to see if they had any openings (they didn't). Finally when it looked like a contract position opened up with the company I emailed again letting them know that I had expressed interest in the job. He actually said the contract hadn't been awarded yet, so he wasn't sure what I was applying for, but when it was, he'd keep my resume on file and give it to them.

Well fast forward to Thursday, I get a call out of the blue from him asking if I was still looking for a job and stating that the liked my resume better than the ones he was getting from the contractor. The weird thing is that I had applied for the job with the contractor nearly 6 weeks ago. so I'm not sure why they didn't pass my resume on since the job though I was such a great candidate! Oh well.

So for next time we move I'm going to 1. Work on getting licensed early, 2. Call and email directors of pharmacies so they will have my resume on file if something happens, 3. Apply to all jobs. 4. Sit back and let the job offers roll. ;)

Necessity is the mother of invention

Or so the saying goes. Well if that's the case, then I must not really have many needs. Actually, I do tend to sway on the minimalist side. However, I have recently been trying to come up with something to make or sell or do. I've thought about decorating baby clothing or even making baby clothing despite not knowing how to sew or having any real experience with baby clothes. I've thought about trying to start a twitter account and then monetizing it. I thought about making other crafts to sell. I've even been trying to wrack my brain for something I could INVENT. Surely I could simply come up with the next newest latest and greatest thing in a day or two despite never previously having the aptitude for it.

Well in my quest to make side hustles or produce income streams I found a website where you can post your inventions and then, through crowd sourcing, you can influence the way the product looks or costs or even if it gets made. That sounds perfect! I can make a few pennies and learn about the invention process. Well I love taking surveys, so the 'influence' part is great. I just get an opinion and tell it to them. So easy! Let the $$$ roll. (I haven't made money, I doubt I actually will make money, actually I'm not really even 100% clear on how money is made in this stage of the game, but hey, that's beside the point.)

Then I thought about looking through their past products. What do inventors make? Bonus, I can consider this research for my latest and greatest yet-to-be-had idea!

Well turns out they make a lot of gadgets...and power outlets. Now my husband and I have been crowned the King and Queen of small kitchen gadgets, so I'm not really one to scoff at brightly colored, single use items. However, I did feel that rather than building a better mousetrap, one that was completely novel in form or function, people just built the same old thing...with a small twist.

For example one of the products is an attachment for a garden hose that made it spray like water from a watering can, and apparently also can double as a sprinkler. I guess you can buy this one new gadget and get rid of two gadgets you already own! Hooray consumerism.

Another invention was what looked like a salad spinner for popcorn. I thought it was for seasoning, but apparently it is just a plastic bowl you use to microwave the popcorn in...but it has a spinner so you can put butter on it.

Another was pitcher with two pour spouts..which you can hold on to...so you can pass it across the table and both hold onto it. Not sure why the two spouts and not just multiple handles.

And finally...someone invented scissors. No, not just any scissors, ones that open up and can be used as a single blade for opening packages, or curling ribbon, or scoring paper. Say it ain't so! I've never seen such a thing. Oh wait, I've got a half dozen or so floating around my house already. Their twist on the product is...wait for it...a spot in the handle for the second blade to rest. Guess I never knew I was risking life and limb all those times I was curing ribbon.

So all of my research has proven that I don't have to invent something that hasn't been done yet. I just need to add something superfluous to some already common invention to make a minuscule difference and viola...new invention! Now let the $$$ roll.

Pink Shorts

As I mentioned yesterday I got these shorts on clearance from Old Navy. I'm so glad I did, because they have already become a staple in my wardrobe.

This is how it was seen worn yesterday.

Black shirt, pink necklace, silver sparkle reef wedges

Flowered shirt and Lexy.

Another Old Navy clearance shirt find.

Old Navy Clothes

I went to Old Navy the other day and got these shorts and blue top. I have been wanting some more shorts and this bright color complements a number of my shirts. As a bonus it was in the clearance section. I've been wearing it quite often and I'll show you some them tomorrow. Also in the clearance section were a couple of tops similar to this blue one. I liked a few of them, but the one I liked best (of course) was this blue one that was full price. The tank is sheer and has white, navy and light blue circles on it in circular shapes to give the shirt some dimension. I have to wear a tank top underneath, but both white and light blue have worked great. I styled it with my pink shorts and also with a pencil skirt for work. I'm not digging it with the skirt, but I think if it were tucked in better with possibly a belt, necklace and some shoes it would look much nicer.